Could YOU live with your co-workers for nine months?

That's the challenge facing the all-female Team SCA as they take on the Volvo Ocean Race. Oh, and 100-ft waves, temperatures of -5 and the risk of pirates…Rosie Mullender headed to Lanzarote to meet the British women taking on one of the world's toughest races

Dee Caffari clearly remembers the scariest moment of her sailing career. "I was sailing alone on the Southern Ocean when I went up the mast and my climbing gear seized up," she says. "I'm scared of heights, and it took me an hour and a half to get down. I was battered and bruised and burst into tears. But the job still had to get done, so the next day I went up again…"

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Most of us would avoid sailing like the plague after an incident like that – but instead, Dee, 41, is one of four Brits joining an 11-women team planning on sailing the world in the Volvo Ocean Race which sets off in October.

SCA, the company behind lady-friendly products including TENA, Bodyform and Velvet, has invested an undisclosed (but probably pretty whopping) sum in putting the team together from scratch. With the company focussing firmly on empowering women (we certainly wouldn't want to spend nine months at sea without loo roll…), they felt putting the crew through their paces was the perfect way to show what women are made of.

Rosie visits Team SCA

"SCA is supporting an all-female team because we support women's empowerment and their freedom to participate fully in society - socially, educationally and professionally – across the world," says Sarah Wilson of SCA. "For us, the race is about co-operation, and striving towards common goals."

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Watching the team happily eating lunch together in the sunshine on their Lanzarote base camp, it's clear the women – from the UK, USA, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Australia – get on famously. But the real test will come when they're living side-by-side on a 65-foot boat (that's smaller than the length of a tennis court), tackling temperatures ranging from -5 to +40 degrees, 100ft waves, and the risk of attacks from pirates. Yep, PIRATES.

The nine-month race covers 38,739 miles with just ten pit-stops. Food is freeze-dried, luxuries like make-up are nowhere to be seen, and the team will sail 24 hours a day, on rotating four-hour shifts. Even going to the loo will be traumatic, as it's open to the elements…

It's no wonder, then, that each team member was profiled psychologically before they began their gruelling 16-month training to make sure they could cope – and gelling as a team on dry land is also pretty crucial

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"The compatibility of the team is of huge importance, because the girls are going to face situations they've never seen before," Brad Jackson, one of the team's seven coaches, told Cosmo. "Being able to rely on each other and help each other out is really important. It's not just about everybody being friends and getting along, it's more about the mindset."

This is just the fourth time in its 40-year history that an all-female team have tackled the race, in the face of critics who don't believe such an arduous race can be won by women. But these girls, who spend hours in the gym in preparation for the challenge ahead, are certain they've got what it takes.

"The wonderful thing about offshore sailing is that it is a perfect sport for women to compete on a level playing field with the men," Dee says. "Many of us have proved that in the past. It is about being clever and playing to your strengths and making the fewest mistakes. It is not just about brute strength and power, you also have to make good decisions and have good tactics and strategy. It's a thinking-man's game!"

"The girls are so inspiring because of what they're trying to do and achieve with this project," Brad adds. "I know from experience that this is one of the hardest things you could ever do, even for a group of very experienced guys who've done the race before.

"I still don't think they realise how hard it's going to be, but we're sailing in a fleet of very talented and experienced sailors. They're going to have to be pushing hard and working hard every second of the way."

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